Thursday, June 12, 2008

A Thinning of the Herd

A day of reckoning is coming for college football's mid-majors. Faced with rising costs and only an occasional crumb from the Bowl Championship Series pie, the pressures are building to justify a Division I-A program in challenging economic times.

New Mexico State, for example, just received a warning from Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson, who said the Aggies must average 15,000 fans this season or risk being booted from the conference.

And really, does North Texas belong in the same division as Texas?

Tim Stephens of the Orlando Sentinel tackles the question, saying that mid-major teams might have to "finally face up to the truth they've denied for so long and stop spending taxpayer money in an effort to be something they are not — and never will be."

This is true but there is already a defacto separation in Division I between the 65 or so BCS teams and the 45 or so non-BCS teams. Being in D1A (excuse me, Bowl Subdivision) does help profile for rest of schools. Enforcing the attendance requirements would really destroy the MAC and Sun Belt

i dont mean to sound like an old man, but does a football program have to make money in order to exist? 99% of college teams "lose" money, so does football have to be held to a different standard? to shut down, for example, the penn state softball team because they aren't making money is unacceptable, so why can't they play football for footballs sake?

In the early 1990s, Tulsa allowed beer sales at their stadium for a home game against some I-AA team (Montana State?). Biggest crowd I have ever seen at the stadium beyond OU and OSU.

To third commentator, most schools loose roughly the same amount money on softball or women's soccer or men's track, etc. Penn State has revenue from football to off set those loses from the other sports. North Texas does not have the revenue from football.

The OS blog posting puts things in a interesting light in terms of the down turn in the economy.

Listen BCS Schools... Go play people on the road before you start talking about how great you all are. I would venture to say that most of the mid to bottom tiered BCS teams would have the same (if not worse) record as Florida Atlantic will come season's end.